Dev Q&A - Post your questions here!

[Cefiar]

Why are there so many elements for evolving cosmic talismans?

All the different pieces have increased the complexity of trying to evolve those talismans many times compared to normal talismans. Chasing all these extra pieces has definitely reduced my enjoyment of the game.

I understand you may want to limit their evolution so they don't create a vastly different dynamic in the game, but there are simpler ways than making lots of different components for them, like just making it that you require more components.

Leviathan Edit: Hi Cefiar! Kaz posted an answer to this in his reply at the beginning on this thread. I've also pasted it below!

One of the goals for the Cosmic Talismans, which we haven't quite finished executing on, was to give players the opportunity for more unique and customizable builds as well as to embark on a distinct adventure to complete those builds. While we have been seeing lots of diversity and creativity in the Cosmic Talisman use, we're still a bit behind on adding in the unique farming areas where you can acquire specific materials in bulk (such as Black Rain, Ashes of Ice, etc.)

The point of this is to create different motivations to play different challenges and areas in the game and break up the monotony of only grinding the one dungeon or quest all day, every day. That's part of the rational of why there are the distinct materials, but I can understand the current frustration off not being able to adequately pursue the completion of your specific Cosmic Talisman at this time.

In the short term we are increasing the drop rates of these materials in the Cosmic Talisman Dungeon (which is meant to be a more general source of evolution material) while we continue to develop the locations that will allow players to farm specific evolution materials.

[kkkreg5]

I'm a fan of the band first and foremost. I've been playing the game since Oct 2016. I've seen the good and the bad of this game. The "good" being the concept. The "bad" being the bugs and lack of honesty from the development team. Honesty would go a long way in helping the player base understand the issues and processes in the game development.

My questions are:

1) We know that rebuilding from the "ground up" is not possible, but can the bugs please be addressed? Passives not working correctly and the AI boost that we have been told does not exist but can plainly see when playing arena.

2) Cost of in app purchases. I'm am considered a "whale" by most forum members here. I think that more income could be generated simply by reducing costs. Maybe more options to purchase some characters outright instead of the endless grind. Those that want to can still grind, those that don't can purchase. Is this a consideration?

3) What are the long term plans for this game?

Thanks for taking the time to look all of the questions posted on this thread. I look forward to reading the responses.

Leviathan Edit: Hi kkkreg5! Matt has addressed your questions here!

[HuckFinn150]

I find the game by an article I read that rescued it. I've been a fan of IM since the early 80's and have seen them multiple times. In the last year I started understanding the game and got better, as I never played any video games before. I'm very thankful to the great customer service and they that goes into this great game. I'll keep and play it as long as it's available. I've backed away as it's become a big time issue. My question is will there be some way to pay a certain amount of time without tying my phone is so long and still be able to progress in the game?

Leviathan Edit: Hi HuckFinn150! Kaz posted an answer to this in his reply at the beginning on this thread. I've also pasted it below!

We have had discussion about an "auto-complete" currency or "familiars" system that would allow players to strategically auto-complete certain content (such as your Trooper Runs, Skull Quests, Auto-Arena, etc.), but it is currently further down on the priority list since we are working on larger initiatives like Silent Planet, Guilds, Avalon, etc.

That being said, we have been generally making moves to reduce the time commitment required from the game by lowering the number of Events running and adding in features such as Frontier Keys that allow players to engage with the game at their own pace.

[Yup]

Why do you require so much to run "trooper badges"?

50 troopers at even 4SOT per run is 200SOT. At the rate SOT refills that means at least twice a day the app must be launched because after 120SOT you can't accumulate any more naturally. And.. that also means you need a 3-4 break between runs to allow at least some SOT to accumulate since it does so slowly.

Are there ANY plans it make playing trooper badges faster? Easier? I feel i should need to expel all SOT merely to send Trooper badges.

Leviathan Edit: Hi Yup! Kaz posted a more detailed answer to a similar questions in his reply at the beginning on this thread. He also had a shorter response to this specific question, which I've pasted below! Please do be sure to check out his whole reply for further details. Cheers!

As mentioned in my post above, there are features further down the design backlog to potentially address issues like this, but they will not likely be something we can action on in the short term.

[Metallicamilo]

Do you play your own game? How often?

Leviathan Edit: Hi Metallicamilo! Matt posted an answer to this in his reply at the beginning on this thread. I've also pasted it below!

I'm in the game pretty much daily. I don't think I've ever seen Kaz not playing it.

[Deathbat6120]

Hey guys! Thanks for doing this Q&A! Got a few more.. design based questions, as there are many questions being asked relating to gameplay/bugs/events/etc, and I've always wanted to know more about the creative aspects of the game:


1. How do you decide what 'themes' to have for each month? Some like the tour are obvious, but what's the process for other months? Similarly, will there be another Mega-Event? Personally, I loved the Gods Of Powerslave and Night City events, so it would be awesome to see something like those again!

2. How do you decide on the characters that you can earn from Gauntlet? Will there ever be another Eddie which will eventually replace Final Frontier? (I'm especially loving the designs of Wrathchild and Charlotte, which brings me to my next question...)

3. Designs of the characters - How do you go about this? Of course there's the Eddies and The Beast, and some of the themed characters like the Gods of Powerslave too, and they all have a "base" to work off of (Album art, official posters, mythology, history, etc). However, for the characters that don't have this "base", how do you go about designing them?

4. There was the visual revamp to Wicker Man Isle, but will other worlds receive this treatment? If so, which worlds, and will there be any visual updates to some of the older characters?

5. What has been the most interesting/enjoyable character, dungeon, level, etc. to make? Do you have favourite designs? Is there anything you would personally change if you could?

6. You asked for character ideas, and one character I would love to see would be a Tears of a Clown Eddie (even made my own design, lol). Any chance of him or something similar in the future?

7. Quick question on merch - Will we see more figurines and pins? I would love to see more of these with some of the newer characters, especially Final Frontier, Alexander, more of the Gods, Charlotte, etc.

8. Finally - Do you think there'll ever be another tour if more worlds/lore are explored? (Missed the London shows, very gutted lol)



As for me - I've been playing this game pretty much since launch, though took some time off and then really got back into it just before this time last year. I've been a fan of Maiden for about 6-7 years now when I first started listening to metal, and they've always been one of my favourites, so the game was huge for me. Thank you for all the work you put into it, and I can't wait to see what the future holds! Cheers, and Up The Irons! \m/


Leviathan Edit: Hi Deathbat6120! Great questions! Kaz has addressed them in his reply over here. Llexi has also addressed questions 4, 7, and 8 over here!

[Bakura]

I wanted to make a suggestion: How about a Gauntlet Top 3 Winners acknowledgement, like the Arena weekly winners get. You should have more obvious/ frequent display of Top 3 place winners , more than just on the Facebook page and the very rare pop up image when in the Arena. Having the winners image in both Arena and Gauntlet respectively, and when we login to the game.... thus creating more awareness and an interest to compete. More recognition will fuel more competition.
Thanks for your consideration, love the game!

*Been playing 1 year.
*Somewhat of a fan before playing LOTB (since 1985), but definitely more of a fan because of the game.

Leviathan Edit: Hi Bakura! Matt posted an answer to this in his reply at the beginning on this thread. I've also pasted it below!

Ha, so, about that. The reason that the pop-up for the arena winners is so inconsistent is because popping it in game is a manual process that relies on a messaging delivery service we use. it's time consuming, and given it has to be set up manually, it's rarely the highest priority of the day when we get into the office on Monday mornings. Additionally, we only have so many available trigger poijts available in the game where we can activate these messages, so we run into problems of available visual real estate if we want to publish even more messages.

This is something we'd like to address in future, both by adjusting how we handle in game messages and the services we use to deliver them, as well as automating the weekly winner callouts so they don't have to be activated manually. Unfortunately, it's just never our top priority. One day, I hope.

[Shaolin85london]

I noticed there is a storyline characters still missing from the bos. Is there any chance to add it up to the bos? Cheers

[GrimDusk]

To answer the initial questions:

I found the game looking through the App Store and have been playing it since the first anniversary. I listened to Maiden a bit before, but not as much as now.

Here are some of my questions:

1. How long of a lifespan do you guys expect from this game?
2. Will we see a PC release of LoTB?
3. What was the inspiration for Beast Eddie? In addition, his fury summons a large demon; is that demon important to plot at all or is it just a random cool fury animation?

That’s all for now, thanks for taking the time to do this.


Leviathan Edit: Hi GrimDusk. Matt answered your question regarding the PC release at the beginning of this thread. I have also copied his response below!

I can't say yes, but I won't say no. For the forseeable future our focus is the mobile game.

[DIEDD]

hey devs, really cool idea this Q&A session.
My question is, are there plans to improve the aspects of the other old eddies? Like what you did with holy smokes eddie face. I would love to see a cyborg eddie much more like the piece of art that is somewhere in time.
Thanks in advance.

Leviathan Edit: Hi DIEDD. Kaz answered questions similar to this one in his reply at the beginning of this thread.